


Menagerie

by ArtjuiceRP, Hawkeye733



Series: Scenes You'd Like to See [5]
Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: F/M, Tumblr Prompt
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-13
Updated: 2015-06-13
Packaged: 2018-04-04 06:47:59
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,278
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4128753
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ArtjuiceRP/pseuds/ArtjuiceRP, https://archiveofourown.org/users/Hawkeye733/pseuds/Hawkeye733
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Based on a tumblr plot: Liam x Emma - Vet and person who brings in strays</p>
<p>Scenes You'd Like to See is the result of ArtjuiceRP and Hawkeye733 being terrible influences on each other and then asking tumblr for prompts.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Menagerie

Liam normally treats cats, dogs and rabbits so it’s already a slightly memorable day when Belle knocks on his door and tells him that there’s a woman waiting in reception with a rat named Smee. It gets even more noteworthy when the blonde woman enters his examination room, a black and white rat wearing a tiny knitted red hat wriggling in her hands.

“Your rat is wearing a hat.” It’s the only thing he can think of to say and the woman, Miss Swan according to the paperwork Belle handed him earlier, shrugs as if her rat’s attire is entirely normal.

“He’s also bitten me already, so if you could hurry this examination up, I probably should go and get a shot or something.” She states, placing the rat gingerly down on the large metal table and then adjusting the angle of the animals hat with a light, gentle touch, as though he’s the type of rat who would prefer to wear his headgear at a slightly jaunty angle. “You  _do_  treat rats here, right?”

“I do.” Liam assures her, stepping up to the side of the table just as the rat attempts a daring escape. “Did you find him or is he yours?”

“I found him at the beach.” The woman tells him, looking at him as though daring him to question it. “I didn’t think that could happen so I wondered if he was actually meant to be there and then when I didn’t know, I figured he couldn’t be much worse off if I took him home.”

“You just  _found_  a domestic rat?” Liam asks in surprise, and the woman nods.

And after that, it goes like any other examination. He exchanges small talk with the woman, learns that her name is Emma, and tells her a bit about rat care because it turns out she’s loathe to part from a rat that seems eager to wear a little red wool hat, not that she’ll tell him anything about where the hat came from.

She leaves pretty quickly when he’s finished with Smee, which is already the rat’s given name despite her finding him only earlier that day, because she wants to get a check up at the nearby clinic even though Liam assures her that because it’s already stopped bleeding, she most likely just needs to clean it with some hydrogen peroxide and antibiotic cream.

And it’s not an encounter he’s likely to forget anytime soon.

~~~*~~~

The next time he sees the name Emma Swan, it’s written on paperwork that Belle has given him about a woman sitting in the reception with a pet cricket named Jiminy, which makes him laugh for about ten minutes. By the time he opens the door and lets Emma into the room, she’s scowling and he manages to apologise through his chuckles but he doesn't think it calms her.

He tells her that he’s not entirely sure what to do with the cricket she’s abruptly handed him, because bugs aren’t entirely his strong suit. And by that, he means he’s as clueless as she is, although he promises her that if she really does want the cricket examined, he can probably find an expert somewhere.

“That’s not necessary.” Emma decides. “But I’m still keeping him.”

“That’s your decision.” Liam states neutrally, and Emma narrows her eyes as though she thinks he wants to say otherwise. The truth is, he couldn’t care less which animals she keeps as long as she reappears at his practice and brightens his week again. “Do you think he’ll get along with Smee?”

Emma clearly thinks he’s teasing her, although it’s a genuine question, because she snatches the box holding Jiminy back and storms from the room.

~~~*~~~

It’s a teacup pig next. Liam isn’t entirely sure how Emma managed to come across a _teacup pig_  roaming through Storybrooke but she has. It’s another animal she seems determined to keep, because even though he may have only met her only a few times, he’s starting to pick up on the fact that Emma Swan refuses to leave anything without a home if she can provide one.

He warns her that despite the misleading name, teacup pigs can end up weighing between 20 to 300 pounds and he can hardly guarantee a weight for the small creature she’s brought to him, but he can promise her that it’s likely to get quite a bit bigger.

But that and the warning of large veterinary bills and the high risk that wherever she lives won’t allow a pig doesn’t seem to scare her away. She meets his gaze and says she has to try and if it does turn out that she can’t provide what a pet pig would need, she’ll give him up so that he has his best chance, even if it’s not with her.

“What’s this one called?” He asks, once the pig is examined and looking surprisingly comfortable in Emma’s arms. “Babe?”

“No.” Emma tells though a chuckle, although she seems less happy than she did when she arrived. “He’s called Henry. Don’t ask why. Just the first name that came to mind, I guess.”

He doesn’t ask why, because he won’t if she doesn’t want him too and she’s soon leaving with a pile of leaflets he had downloaded on taking care of teacup pigs and Henry oinking occasionally in her arms.

~~~*~~~

The last time she brings him a new animal, it’s a monkey. An actual monkey. Liam doesn’t know what confuses him more, the fact that Emma seems to be capable of finding any stray animal or the fact that she’s somehow found a  _monkey_.

“He’s called Walsh.” Emma says, as though that’s the answer to the question on the tip of his tongue. “Do you know where I should send him?”

At least she seems to know that she’s not really prepared to suddenly host a monkey in a home, along with a pig, a cricket and a rat.

“You don’t want to keep this one?” He asks as he carefully begins to examine the monkey. “You have already named him.”

“I don’t trust it.” Emma says, giving the monkey a resentful glare which it returns. “It gives me weird looks and I have no idea where it came from and monkey’s don’t just randomly show up on the sidewalk, right?”

“I don’t think they do.” He agrees, and he wrestles the monkey into one of the large cages in the back room of the surgery and places a call to someone who might actually know what to do.

She starts to walk out his surgery and he feels, for a strangely terrifying moment, that this is it. That he may see her for check ups on Jiminy and Smee, but part of him feels that he’s not going to be cheered up by a strange finding and an odd name ever again, so he calls out her name and she stops.

“What do you want?” she asks warily.

He takes a small white business card out of his pocket, one that has his name and practice information written across it a bold font, and then he scribbles his own personal mobile number on the bottom. “Here.” He says, handing it to her and watching her carefully as she looks down at it with an unreadable expression. “You don’t need to steal animals from the zoo to see me, Emma.”

“I wasn’t doing that.” Emma says with a roll of her eyes, but she pockets the card and sends him a promising smile as she walks out of his examination room.

Liam hopes this isn’t the last week she makes brighter.


End file.
